


Ground Zero

by orphan_account



Category: Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Original Character(s), Post-Ready Player One, Zeroed out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 20:19:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14172633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Before the siege on Castle Anorak, the Mirage were some of the most notorious bounty hunters in the OASIS, racking up hundreds of credits from every job they completed.They did not, however, expect to lose it all.





	Ground Zero

This isn't the situation I was meant to be in.

Rather, this isn't the situation  **any** of us were supposed to be in.

When James Halliday died six years ago, he left behind both a legacy and an enigmatic contest. Whoever was the first to find all three keys - Copper, Jade, and Crystal - would gain full control over the OASIS, vast amounts of virtual wealth, and all of Halliday's stocks in his game company. Naturally everyone went bonkers trying to track this thing down. They flooded to the Halliday Journals - a vault of information on the man himself - and analyzed every movie he watched, every video game he completed, and every critical moment in his life to hunt for clues. 

My crew and I weren't among those yahoos.

We were the Mirage, one of the highest ranking bounty-hunting groups in the OASIS. Our afternoons were packed with excursions to the extraterrestrial sectors. By excursion, I don't mean some luxury vacation with beautiful women on either shoulder. No, I mean hunting the most dangerous game: our fellow men. If we were on someone's tail, they'd be zeroed out by the end of the day. Sometimes we headed off to Pandora and laid waste to raider gangs or, if we were feeling lucky, to Mars Vegas for a few rounds of alien poker. 

When the Hunt began, we got approached by dozens of people looking to eliminate anyone they thought had information on where the keys were. It was our first steady stream of jobs in over two years. The thrill of the hunt never ceases to feel amazing, especially when a hunt is completed. Ah, the joy of splattering these virtual walls with numerous colors of blood. 

Then it all came to a screeching halt.

Parzival sent out the call to action while my friends Wayne and Robin were making repairs to our ship: a heavily modified version of the Eagle 5 Wayne had won from a  _Spaceballs_ Flicksync. We were some of the last to arrive to the battle, but once we showed up, we proceeded to kick all sorts of ass. Robin launched herself onto the battlefield decked out in full combat medic armor and kept multiple healing and buffing streams going while Wayne and I took to the skies. Wayne manned the turret while I flew. He shot down a couple of IOI fighters and I slashed at a couple of Gremlins which had attached themselves to my windshield. For once in my life, I felt like my world wouldn't go pear-shaped so easily.

Oh, how wrong I was.

We were on the final approach to Castle Anorak when Robin - who had made it to the frontlines alongside a few other players - opened an emergency voice chat with Wayne and me. She sounded panicked as we both picked up.

* * *

**CHAT LOG**

**Convo. between users Bluebird (lvl. 38), Deadheat (lvl. 35), and Valence (lvl. 43) on PLANET DOOM.**

**Deadheat:** Hey, we're on our way to the bridge. Your knights in shining armor are on their way.  
**Bluebird:**  You may want to turn around!  
**Deadheat:** Hell no. We're on the verge of something great here!  
**Valence:** Just imagine the loot we'll get from this...  
**Bluebird:** Pull your heads out of your asses, guys! Excuse my language, but they've detonated the Catalyst!  
**Bluebird:** All that stuff we worked for's gonna be gone in a few seconds!  
**Valence:** Crap.  
**Deadheat:** Gentlemen, it's been an honor flying with you. See you on the other side.

* * *

 

All I could do was brace for impact as the blast engulfed the Eagle 5.

And then I awoke.


End file.
